Quoddy Bay criticizes city for filing protest Firm seeks dialogue with Eastport

EASTPORT – Representatives of Quoddy Bay LNG had hoped to convince the City Council on Monday that their project was safe and in the best interest of the city, but city officials weren’t interested in discussing the matter.

So instead, during Monday night’s council meeting, Quoddy Bay spokesman Adam Wilson read a letter from Quoddy Bay project manager Brian Smith criticizing the city for not allowing an open discussion. Smith was unable to attend the meeting.

The Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LNG had requested a meeting with the City Council after the city filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the company’s proposed liquefied natural gas project. Company officials have maintained throughout the process that the project is safe.

But LNG opponents believe that Eastport has nothing to gain and everything to lose if a multimillion-dollar LNG terminal is built in nearby Pleasant Point. Their major concern is safety and access to the city.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe and Quoddy Bay hope to build the facility at Split Rock near Route 190, the only road into Eastport. They plan to run a cryogenic pipeline under Route 190 to connect with tanks in neighboring Perry.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe expects to receive more than $10 million a year in revenues depending upon the flow of LNG, while Perry is looking at annual payments of $3.6 million a year.

In June, Eastport filed a protest with FERC outlining its concerns over the safety and security of the facility and its operation.

In a 67-page response, the company said it has “carefully crafted its proposed facilities and the operation of those facilities to protect the safety of the surrounding property and the people located within the surrounding area.”

But city officials said Eastporters are concerned that if something happens at the facility, the company could offer no guarantee that the more than 1,500 residents would be able to get off the island.

In his letter to the council, Smith said that had the city allowed its fire and police chiefs to attend the safety and security meetings the company has held, the city would be fully informed about the pipeline that would run under Route 190.

The project manager said he had hoped to bring the reservation’s police and fire chiefs to the City Council meeting Monday night “to tell you how much effort they have put in to ensure the safety and security of the facility that their community is hosting,” Smith said.

Smith said he would like to see more dialogue between the company and the city.

In its response, read by Councilor Brian Schuth, the city said it disagreed with Smith’s assertion that the city had not participated in the FERC process.

Schuth noted that Quoddy Bay was allowed to present its proposal to the city at two separate meetings. Schuth said city officials, including the police and fire chief, had attended meetings with Quoddy Bay and at that time had expressed concerns about the placement of the facility at Route 190. He said city officials had attended other meetings and planned to attend more in the future.

“At no point have we felt that Quoddy Bay has taken our expressed concerns seriously or made any serious attempt to accommodate them in their proposed project design,” Schuth read. “The city, therefore, has been compelled to file its protest with FERC to ensure the health, welfare, safety and security of our community.”

Schuth also noted the company’s reluctance to address Eastport’s safety and security concerns until the city had filed its protest with FERC.

“The company’s belief,” Schuth read in the city’s response, “that an emergency planning meeting with our 20-member volunteer fire department and four-man police force will resolve the many concerns the city has articulated in its protest also demonstrates the extent to which [the company does] not understand the community in which they are working,” Schuth read. “Quoddy Bay’s attempt to dismiss regulatory, safety and security issues with a wave of the hand is one of the many behaviors that keeps the city uncomfortable with their assurances that the project is safe and secure.”

During the meeting only the company and council were allowed to read their letters out loud.

Members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe who attended the meeting also presented a letter on behalf of the tribe at the end of the meeting, but did not read it.

In the letter, tribal spokesman Phillip Farrell reminded Eastport residents that the two communities have enjoyed a long and peaceful relationship.

“Our many contributions to your comfort include our direct participation in the protection of your community during the War for Independence, many more countless contributions over the years have been at great expense to the Passamaquoddy people, and still we made them without complaint as we have done for many hundreds of years,” the letter said.

Because Route 190 runs through the reservation, the letter noted that Eastport residents have enjoyed “free passage” through Pleasant Point “at great risk to the safety and security” of tribal members.

“Your commerce is greatly aided by your ability to move commercial goods and many dangerous and hazardous materials through our community, upon a road next to which our children routinely play and our people walk upon daily,” the letter said. “Indeed the very survival of your public institutions and many private businesses depend to a large degree on the millions in commerce afforded your community by ours, yet we find you objecting strenuously to our efforts to improve our own [economy].”

Tribal officials requested that the two communities begin a dialogue. “To this end we have invited you on numerous occasions to discuss the many ways through which Washington County as a community may gain the most from such an important economic opportunity,” the letter said.

Outside the meeting, tribal Councilor Eddie Bassett noted that the tribe has allowed dangerous material, including gasoline trucks, through the heart of the reservation. “Well, should we shut down Route 190 because there is hazardous material going through that could pose a danger to human health?” he asked.

Asked if the tribe would close Route 190 to the city, Bassett said it would not. But he said he would like to see an alternate route into Eastport.